AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sal’s voice replies. “What a fucking weirdo. Tell him if he sends me one of that motherfucker’s feet, I’ll shove it up his ass.”
“Really?”
“Of course not. Let’s fuckin’ celebrate. Goddamn, it feels good to have this thing over with. I feel like a kid who just got let outof school on summer break. You wanna smoke a Cuban with the new boss of the Rossi family?”
The other man chuckles. “You know… I think I’d have more fun playing with Alessandro’s bitch than smoking a Cuban.”
Sal laughs. “Oh, go on, don’t let me stop you. You can fuck her, and I’ll use her as an ashtray.”
Footsteps start to come in the direction of the basement door. I creep down the steps as quickly as I can, heart pounding, and lie on the ground, pretending to be tied up.
Tears stream down my face, but I ignore them. No matter what happens next, I’m going to make it as difficult for them as I possibly can.
The basement door opens, and someone walks down the steps. I clutch the screwdriver, hand sweaty. The light flicks on.
When he crouches down next to me, I attack. I spin around, thrusting the screwdriver at him with all of my strength. It plunges into some part of his body and he screams, falling backward. I pull it out and just keep stabbing, stabbing, and stabbing, driving the screwdriver into his torso until his shirt is covered in blood and he’s not moving.
I collapse next to him and drop the screwdriver, hands shaking, gasping for breath.
“What’s going on down there?” calls Sal’s voice from upstairs.
***
Alessandro
My shoe grinds the gas pedal into the floor of Gio Lombardo’s Cadillac. I screech around the turn leading to Sal Marino’sdriveway, stop, go into reverse, then floor it again, ramming straight through the gate as the metal screams and crunches.
The impact is a big jolt to my already damaged system, but I don’t have any spare focus to think about that. One of Sal’s men is smoking a cigarette in the driveway. I gun it in his direction, run him over, then reverse back over him and jump out of the car holding the shotgun.
Gunshots ring out from the house, blowing the side mirror off the ruined Cadillac. I dive behind it for cover as more bullets slam into the side of the car. I want to return fire, but I don’t dare. Until I know where Ava is, I can’t risk hitting her by accident.
“I have your wife!” Sal’s voice yells as the gunfire breaks. “You shoot at me, she dies.”
Panic grips me. “You hurt a hair on her head, you’re going to wish you died fast like Gio!”
Sal laughs. “I never liked Gio anyway. A marriage of convenience, as it were. You’d know something about that, right?”
“Let her go!” I shout. “You want to have any prayer of walking out of here, you let her go.”
More gunshots shatter the car window. I crouch as bits of glass fall all around me.
“All this for her?” Sal’s voice mocks me. “Did you know Ava’s mother is the one who killed your parents?”
I freeze, barely comprehending. “What?”
He laughs again, and I get the impression he’s trying to enrage me, to force me into making a mistake. “She set the car bomb. She’s the reason your parents are dead.”
Deep breaths. Calm.“And what makes you think that?”
“I told her that your dad killed Jackie. So in a sense,Ikilled him. And your whore mother. How do you like that, kid? I did everybody a favor. No way I was going to let that useless fucker take over the family just because he was Nazzaro’s little brat.”
My hatred is making me stupid, and Sal knows it. This man arranged the killings of my parents, my grandfather, and he kidnapped my wife. All while pretending to be a friend, someone I could trust. I stay where I am behind the car, not trusting myself to make smart decisions.
Deep breaths. Calm. One dumb move and Ava is dead.
***
Ava
